3 Lessons from A Little Princess

Once on a dark winter’s day, when the yellow fog hung so think and heavy in the streets of London that the lamps were lighted and the shop windows blazed with gas as they do at night, an odd-looking little girl sat in a cab with her father and was driven rather slowly through the big thoroughfares.

This paragraph snatches readers into the whimsical London of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s imagination. As long-time readers of my blog know, this story world of contrasts is one of my favorite fictional landing places and has captivated me for almost a decade. Since we’ve been exploring the impact of fiction lately, it seemed fitting to do a post on the lessons in A Little Princess.

A Good Name Is Rather To Be Chosen Than Great Riches

“It’s true,” she said. “Sometimes I do pretend I am a princess. I pretend I am a princess so that I can try and behave like one.”

When I first read A Little Princess, the luxury surrounding Sara Crewe fascinated me. When I thought about the fabrics, I could almost feel them. When I read about the shoes that Lavinia claimed were designed to make Sara’s feet look small, I wondered if my shoes made my feet look small. However, when all that was stripped from her, my sense of fascination with Sara didn’t lessen.

Sara’s richness doesn’t revolve around the things she owns. Her toys and dresses are interesting, but her personality and imagination make her surroundings breathtaking regardless of their material worth.

A Little Princess is a Cinderella story. Sara’s desire to behave like a princess could just as easily translate into Cinderella’s mantra, “Have courage and be kind.” Sara shows readers that cultivating an attitude rich in charity is a sort of wealth that can’t be stolen away like physical possessions.

Sara made me want a princess-like heart just as much as princess-worthy belongings.

Do Unto Others As You Would Have Them Do Unto You

“Why,” she said, “we are just the same–I am only a little girl like you.”

Sara does not make a habit of judging people by their social class, intellect, or appearance. When she needs someone in need of friendship, she eagerly seeks an opportunity to show kindness to that person. Her lack of superiority allows her to make genuine friends who love her as much when she is a pauper as when she was an heiress.

“She is hungrier than I am,” she said to herself. ” She’s starving.” But her hand trembled when she put down the fourth bun. “I’m not starving,” she said–and she put down the fifth.

This quote comes from one of the most vivid scenes in A Little Princess. Sara has reached an all time low, and Miss Minchin cold-heartedness is unrelenting. Deprived of meals, Sara happens across an abandoned coin. She uses the coin to get buns from a bakery, then gives away most of her purchase in order to help a girl worse off than herself. Part of being a princess, she tells herself, is feeding the populace.

The Trying of Your Faith Worketh Patience

“Yes,” answered Sara, nodding. “Adversity tries people, and mine has tried you and proved how nice you are.”

This sort of goes along with the first point. If Sara’s kindness had evaporated with her money, A Little Princess would be a very different story. Instead she is transformed from a spoiled child that has managed to remain level-headed to a girl who has proven her mettle and her character. When her riches are restored to her at the end of the story, they seem better than ever before because she has been tried by adversity and proved to be “nice.”

We are children of the King of Kings, heirs to unimaginable riches, yet we are to live in a world that we are not part of (John 17:13-19). Does our behavior evidence who we are in Christ?

Conclusion

Obviously I didn’t have such philosophical thoughts the the first time I read A Little Princess. To be honest, I only recently realized how many lessons stories have tucked into my heart. It’s really neat to look back and put words to the practical inspiration generated by stories like this one.

If you’ve read A Little Princess, do any of these lessons ring true for you? What is one positive, practical inspiration you’ve drawn from a story?

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